Progress is...

rtandon27

@KajiKita & @Cheery_Daff & @beanielou & @badmemory & @Cherryfudge - thank you all for your sympathies!  Isn't there a saying about a pain shared is a pain halved?  Well the sympathies definitely helped me bear the burden!

So I knew the bill was doubling a while back, as we are in the area of the country that was warned of a 50% increase.  In reality it is a 57% increase, so more than I'd expected.  I've checked the web-site for the numbers and yes, water supply and sewerage for a two-bed house with two people does indeed add up to the painfully high number! 

There isn't really anything to contest other than the fact that the company has a rotten history of dumping into our trout/chalk streams and rivers and not taking care of in-town road flooding properly.  The invoice has now appeared in my online account, and there is a cover letter full of BS about how they are going to put millions into improving themselves and how water rates in our area have not gone up over the past years in the same way as other bills (council tax, electric, gas etc.) - I just want to scream that my salary hasn't either so how in the world are we supposed to live our lives when pinching pennies has become the norm?

So OH and I had a little chat about how to fund the 30 pounds and we've decided that for the next few months we will cut out most or our date-night meal spending!  TBH we've not been out at night properly for a long time, not even in the early evening, but we do go out in the middle of the day & it's usually a coffee shop or a food-truck in the afternoon.  We are much happier nesting and watching TV.  As the weather is improving, we will aim to take a picnic with us while enjoying my b-day pressie NT membership.

I'm also aiming to track any extra gleanings until they add up to 30gbp as there is nothing like a little challenge to make the emotionally difficult a bit more fun!  So Project H2O has been funded by 80p to day as I gathered up some bin liners at the office that I can return when our next grocery order arrives! OH thinks he may be able to make up the remaining with some survey money & I'm aiming to hit 6gbp as for me they are few and far between!

So over 12 months we aim to bring in an extra 360pounds to cover the increase!
PROJECT H2O - 0.80/30.00 (month1)

Cherryfudge

It's still a massive increase, but you have a plan so well done for finding a positive spin on it. I'm sure Project H2O will have its challenges but you are resourceful and you have the enormous advantage of both being 'on the same page'. You can do this!

rtandon27

@Cherryfudge - definitely a massive increase and one I resent on principle as we are unable to have a meter and more than doubling our charge is completely unreasonable!  As we are not on a meter, and I feel I need to get my money's worth, yesterday evening all the potted plants outside did get decent water from the mains, and this morning I did have an extra long steamy spa-like everything shower & scrubbed every last bit, washed the locks, did a hair mask and facial and also gave the grout a good scrub before starting on myself. Might as well make full use of the commodity I've paid for.

I laughed when you said we are 'on the same page' - we have to be as OH leaves all the financial stuff to me & takes direction on where and when we have money to spend!  In fact this morning we had an utterly frustrating exchange when I suggested that we could be spontaneous and order 2 breakfast meal deals to have in bed!  OH's first question was - 'but I though we were eliminating eating out' & at gawd-awful-o'clock I had to explain the difference between cutting back and cutting out!  Needless to say we ended up having french-press coffee & Spanish omelette at home with whole meal flatbreads - not quite the meal deal or a cosy breakfast in bed I had envisioned, but very MSE!  Who says romance is dead after being together almost 19 years?  Let's hope our anniversary next month is a bit less frugal, as treats to celebrate have already been budgeted for!

I've just cashed out a 3gbp survey on P!nec0ne that was completed last night, so a bit more dosh to add to our water fund.  OH has been diligently doing surveys on PA and at last count is at about to 20-ish to add to the fund, but of course this will not be counted into the total until it hits the accounts!
PROJECT H2O - 3.80/30.00 (month1)

Cherryfudge

The spa-style shower sounds nice. And re being on the same page, ISWYM, but at least it sounds as though he's agreeing with you! And to show how far out of the 21st century I am, I had to look up breakfast meal deals! I didn't know there was such a thing . Spanish omelette and a good coffee sounds perfect to me, though - think what you'd pay for it if you were on holiday.

But have your meal deals from time to time if it helps.  

Greying_Pilgrim

I can see the luxury of a Breakfast Meal Deal (even if I don't quite understand where it is from - MD's? via delivery?), as you don't have to slave over a hot stove - and then return to bed.  Once I've got out of bed I can't easily return. 

I admire how you budget for the occasional treat rt.  I was thinking today as I passed full cafes and pubs - with their outdoor seating areas filling too - that I never seem to be able to incorporate in a 'treat' of eating out.  I'm not sure if we really don't have the budget, or whether I mentally can't get past the 'how much?'.  At present, saving for windows is a stronger pull than a cuppa or a slice of cake - but that doesn't stop me sometimes longing to just pop in somewhere and order off the menu without over analysis, paralysis! 🙄🤣

Greying X

rtandon27

@Cherryfudge - the homemade omelette & coffee were wonderful, but somehow not as decadent as having someone deliver breakfast and eating it in bed!  As OH does all the cooking & cleaning up, I can't really complain!

@Greying_Pilgrim - in our town we do have a McD's & they do delivery BF, we also have a Gr3ggs, three chain coffee shops, an independent coffee shop & a pub.  All of then do meal deals that include a posh coffee, breakfast sandwich of some sort, and either a hash brown or a sweet treat.  We are just on the edge of the centre of town & delivery from anywhere is between 10 and 30 mins.  Now don't get the idea that I frequent any of them, it was honestly just a whim!  OH, missing the point of both delivery and breakfast in bed, got out of bed got changed and then asked where he was going to pick up breakfast!  I put the pillow over my head and screamed into it, then got up and dressed myself.  We then had a rummage in both freezer & fridge and came up with an option he could prepare himself!

I have to say, we did actually save our pennies and they will go to fish supper for Good Friday from the chippy instead!  The week after Easter is staycation for us, so we will no doubt have the odd cake & coffee out and about while we adventurise (vacation budget not treat budget!)  I do however think that we will need to discuss the concept of spontaneity for the next time one of us has a whim, as I must admit, I'm just as adverse to sudden suggestions as my mister is! 🤣🤣🤣

rtandon27

Mid-month and I've made another mortgage over-payment!  Time to do another small reflection

HEALTH & WELLBEING
*  Well, let's start of with karma coming back to bite me in the butt!  Yesterday, a dear friend and I decided to relive our youth and had cake and coffee for lunch! (instead of real food like proper grown ups)  Mistakenly we both forgot not to get milk in out drinks as we both normally have almond milk.  Well today I had the day off today as a sick day and she's been at home as well.  Overnight we have both had a bad case of food poisoning as it seems the milk was off!  It's been reported to the appropriate council & she has called the cafe to give them a bit of an earful.  It was great that we could pinpoint it to the one thing that both of us had!
*  OH has retrieved his compression socks from the pharmacy and is actually wearing them today - guess the nurse managed to be just bully enough to get him in gear!

WEALTH
*  Gas & Electric, which we all know I find mighty annoying, has admitted that they are taking too much from me and has now lowered my DD - not sure where their calculation comes from, but I am fully aware that my amount spent averages to 134 a month over the past year!  They are calculating at just under 131.  Their moronic app won't let me change my payment from what they have deemed the correct account - I'd like to at the very least tilly tidy to 131 or better yet 134 and leave it at that, rather than the just under 141 they have been taking!  It's no wonder I'm going grey!
*  Water - those thieving batards will not get a penny more from me until the 11th hour, I've diarized my next payment for the 22nd, and it is due the 23rd - I've been luxuriating in long warm showers and keeping my outdoor plants well watered.  I've even contemplated getting a paddling pool and inviting the neighbours grandkids over to play!  It's a shame I'm allergic to willow, or I'd be planting up as many of those thirsty plants as possible at the end of the garden and watering them daily.  As the OH says, nothing like a bit of big company greediness to make me throw all my environmental principles out the window! (He is right there as the first communication I get about reducing water usage this year will see me go spare!)
*  This month's mortgage overpayment has been made and have now reduced the mortgage by one year!  The fancy dancy mortgage calculator in YNAB tells me how much interest I've saved but tbh my one and only motivation is moving my retirement date as early as possible!  I'm not at all sure where next month's overpayment will come from (if at all) - but the overpayment calculator says that going forward each of the remaining 8 payments will reduce my term by either 1 or two months!  If I can get my mortgage term reduced by 2 years before the end of December I will be doing a little happy dance of joy!
*  I am off work next week and we will be making efforts to keep our staycation spends low, making use of my NT membership and hanging out in the odd coffeeshop while adventuring.  Real food in the form of sandwiches will come with us as well as water rations and fruit.  Main evening meals will most probably be had at home.
*  Two more grocery shop Tuesday's this month & about 1 week's work of dosh left to us, so freezer/pantry/fridge will be made good use of to keep us as close to net zero as possible!
*  Still a couple of installments left to pay the dentist, but he's not chasing and I'm not offering!  He's already had a good few thousand out of me since November!
*  Lottery has not seen fit to bless me with anything substantial - a free lucky dip into this Wednesday's draw is the current win.  OH & I had fun looking at the current house on 0maz3 - it's a 15 minute bike ride & a 20 min transit ride to my office - a full room & bathroom in the basement that could be turned into a bnb - and still room for an exercise room and a home office with room to spare for visitors!  It's even furnished and I guarantee it's not flatpack!  Ticket prices are not outrageous so it is very tempting to enter!

GRATITUDES
*  a few more months knocked off the mortgage!
*  a plan has been made to cover the dreaded water bill - OH just announced he is up to about 40 pounds on the surveys, so we are well into covering the increase for both this month and the next!
*  Both my friend and I are recovering from our food poisoning!  So we can hopefully spend some time together tomorrow after work at a museum or score some super-cheap tickets to a westend show!  (personal spends - a fund that almost never gets used)  We'll make sure to eat real food, maybe even bringing our own sandwichs tomorrow.

Cheery_Daff

Sorry to hear about your rotten night, hope you're feeling better soon x

beanielou

That’s rotten. Feel better soon. 

badmemory

You mentioned lotto wins.  Do you now get a lot of "enter this lottery, enter that lottery " & win whatever & then scratch cards too.  I never got those until the new ones took over.  I thought they weren't supposed to do that though.